Another Christmas Season Plagued by the Left

Christmas is perhaps the Left's favorite time of year because it provides the opportunity to create absurd problems for their many "solutions." This Christmas season has proven no different from years past with a school principal in Nebraska banning all things Christmas, the Huffington Post leading the charge against the phrase "Merry Christmas," and the Scottish Parliament banning the "Gingerbread Man" and insisting upon "Gingerbread Person" in an effort to be more inclusive.

Jennifer Sinclair, principal at Manchester Elementary School in Nebraska, was placed on administrative leave after she attempted to institute a ban on all things associated with Christmas. According to Fox News, Sinclair sent out a list of guidelines for how students should conduct themselves during the Christmas season to avoid offending anyone.

"Teachers were reportedly told that generic winter-themed items, such as sledding and scarves, and the 'Frozen' character Olaf, were acceptable," reports Fox News. "Decorations that included Santa, Christmas trees, reindeer, green and red colored items and even candy canes, however, were not acceptable for the elementary school."

Items deemed non-acceptable by Sinclair included any Santa or Christmas clip-art on school worksheets, Christmas trees in the classroom, Christmas music — both sung and played, candy canes, traditional Christmas colors, Christmas movies, Elf-on-the-Shelf toys, reindeer, and Christmas ornaments.

In fact, the only items that were considered acceptable by Sinclair were those related to winter, and not Christmas specifically, such as snowflakes and gingerbread people.

Thankfully, the Elkhorn School District intervened and stated that Sinclair's guidelines violate the district's policy, which states, "Christmas trees, Santa Claus and Easter eggs and bunnies are considered to be secular, seasonal symbols and may be displayed as teaching aids provided they do not disrupt the instructional program for students." Of course, there is no reason for Christmas or Easter at all without Christianity, so Sinclain is just taking liberal illogic to to extremes — the Constitution says that the government cannot interfere in one's "free exercise" of religion (so where is the liberals defense of individual rights — which they will bend over to defend if a boy is mentally confused and thinks he's a girl), and liberals claim to worship inclusiveness and diversity (but yet constantly demonstarte anti-Christian behavior).

The district told Fox News that Sinclair's memo "does not reflect the policy of Elkhorn Public Schools regarding holiday symbols in the school."

The Huffington Post has taken it upon itself to lecture parents on why they should teach their children to default to the phrase "Happy Holidays," which it contends is more inclusive than "Merry Christmas." The publication launched its campaign by sharing the story of a Texas mother who claims that her son angered their neighbors by wishing them "Happy Holidays."

"My family is Jewish, and we recently moved from Massachusetts to Texas for my husband’s job," the letter from Chloe in San Antonio reads. "Last week, my 11-year-old son said 'happy holidays!' to the mom who lives across the street. According to my son and my husband (who was present), she got visibly upset and replied, 'Don’t say that to me! We celebrate Christmas here!'"

HuffPo writer Doyin Richards used the anecdote to make the overgeneralization that proponents of the "Merry Christmas" greeting are opposed to "inclusion."

Predictably, Richards contradicts his own philosophy later in the article by claiming that the young boy in Texas should continue to say "Happy Holidays," even when the individuals he is greeting prefer "Merry Christmas." Now how is that inclusive? It doesn't matter because in that scenario, only Christians are offended.

"You’ve raised a kid to be inclusive. That should be celebrated, not ignored," he writes. "I’d tell your son to keep saying 'happy holidays' around this woman ― and anyone else he encounters. If he receives any grief, he can respond by saying, 'My goal is to cover everyone’s beliefs, including people who don’t celebrate Christmas, because they should get to enjoy the holiday season, too. I mean, Christmas is a part of those happy holidays I mentioned.'" Of course, the word "holiday" is a derivation of "holy day" and so the kid would still be offending educated non-religious folks (and how is it inclusive to intentional offend Christians?).

But can you really expect much more from the Huffington Post? After all, it only recently attacked the Christmas classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, claiming that the behaviors of most of the characters are offensive. It doesn't seem to matter at all that the characters redeem themselves at the end, which is really the point of the story. That doesn't fit into the HuffPo's Christmas-attacking agenda and so it is ignored.

At least Sinclair's ill-advised guidelines and the HuffPo's radical ideas can be attributed to a handful of individuals. When a government body takes time from its busy schedule to worry about issues that affect only snowflakes, there are serious issues. The Scottish Parliament has decided that the term "gingerbread men" is offensive and sexist, and therefore must be replaced by "gingerbread persons." Thankfully, this change applies only to the cookies that its coffee shop in Holyrood serves, but that really is beside the point.

The Daily Wire reports,

Holyrood, Scotland, where Parliament is located, recently learned through research that 30% of female ministers had experienced some form of sexual harassment. It was then deemed necessary to change the classic “gingerbread man” to a less offensive non-binary character. “A tradition festive favorite with children, Holyrood will now stock gingerbread persons as part of an increased focus on gender neutrality,” according toThe Irish Post.

How female ministers being subject to sexual harassment has anything to do with gingerbread cookies is a mystery, but if Scotland's biggest problems are the names of the cookies its coffee shops serve, then good for them.

Scottish citizens have opined on the recent decision. “Surely the Scottish Parliament has got better things to do than worry about what to call gingerbread men?” asked Annie Wells, spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservative Equalities. “This is an utterly pointless gesture which simply trivializes the real issues of gender equality. ”Even outspoken atheist actor Ricky Gervais poked fun at the decision: “Why are they ALL ginger? Racist," he tweeted.

So for the readers who are fed up with the absurd anti-Christmas antics of the Left, take this advice: Go ahead and sit down to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer while eating your gingerbread men that you bought from the baker, to whom you said "Merry Christmas" before picking your children up from school, where they snacked on the candy canes you happily packed in their lunch that morning.

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